Spark 4G fixed wireless speed/shaping questions

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wratterus

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#215045 9-Jun-2017 15:01

Apologies if this is not the correct forum - I couldn't see a specific Spark mobile or fixed wireless page. I just have a couple of questions regarding the fixed wireless service.

I don't have the Spark 4G fixed wireless myself, but have seen quite a few people with it, and see a massive variation in speeds and throughput.

For example, somewhere with perfect LOS to a 4G tower, about 1km away, doing a speedtest in the middle of the afternoon would get around 80Mbps. Try and actually download a decent sized file though (in this particular situation it was the LibreOffice installer) and the download speed started at 7-8 MB/sec and promptly dropped to under 300KB/sec and stayed there. Pause the download for a few mins and run the speedtest again - over 50Mbps.

I've seen similar behavior at different addresses - that is a very extreme example, but the download behavior to me seems like super aggressive traffic shaping.

Does anyone know, or can confirm what the traffic shaping situation is on the 4G fixed wireless?

I do know of several people who have ditched the fixed wireless and gone back to ADSL too as the speed variation and latency was causing too many issues. Again, this is more info from talking to people who have changed, not first hand, but I find it a bit cheeky that Level 1 Spark helpdesk staff seem to be pushing the 4G service very heavily and in some cases not properly explaining the options.

Thank you. :)

Talkiet

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#1797374 9-Jun-2017 16:09

The offer summary explains what sort of traffic shaping there is on the service...

https://store.spark.co.nz/forms/page/homewirelessbroadbandoffersummary

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

wratterus

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#1797383 9-Jun-2017 16:15

Thank you for the link.

Traffic Management

We don't place any artificial speed restrictions on our Home Wireless Broadband plans. This means that you will receive the best speed we can provide at any point in time. In the future we may have to amend this policy to ensure we continue to provide our customers the best possible experience on our network. If we make any changes to this policy which will have a material impact on you we will let you know.

So that statement is 100% true and correct?

Talkiet

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#1797385 9-Jun-2017 16:18

It's a TCF based template and it's a summary only...

http://www.tcf.org.nz/assets/codes/offer-summary-information.pdf

You need to read every linked set of terms and conditions if you want to be able to say it's 100% true and accurate, but basically, yes.

Cheers - N

ps. It is of course a shared access service, so there may be variances in performance at different times of day, or between different locations.

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

atomeara

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#1797489 9-Jun-2017 21:13

It is a very mixed bag, I see many people on it who are very happy and others who are very unhappy.

If you can get ADSL 2+ (or VDSL) then you are more likely to get consistent speed on this service and data caps tend to be more generous, but the peak speed is likely to be lower on ADSL2+ in many cases. Tests seem to suggest VDSL is faster in most cases.

If you are stuck on ADSL 1 (BUBA) then I would say there won't be many cases where fixed wireless is slower as both are likely to get congested at the same time as user demand is pretty consistent (after school / 3pm until around 9pm)

I have heard plenty of times about it slowing down from 3pm to 9pm but that is going to depend on where you are and how loaded the site and sector is and what you are doing on the internet.

If Spark offer a 30 day trail where you cancel it in that 30 days, I would say why don't try it and see how it performs. Just keep the data cap in mind, as that seems to be the other tripping point for heavy users.